Contact centers frequently maintain telephone contact information for individuals that may be used over a time period to originate calls to those individuals. For example, an individual may owe a debt (i.e., they are a debtor) and may be contacted by the debt holder from time-to-time as needed. The debt holder may contact the debtor if a payment is late or other issues arise. Thus, it is possible that the debt holder may call the debtor infrequently, or may go for long time periods (a number of months or even years) between calls.
During this time, the telephone number maintained by the debt holder may become obsolete. The debtor may have disconnected or otherwise changed their telephone number for any number of reasons and may have not informed the debt holder. There are any number of scenarios where a business needs to contact a customer and the telephone information maintained by the business is obsolete, and the business is not aware of the situation.
The called party may have moved, changed wireless service providers, etc., and is no longer using the original telephone number they indicated to the business. Upon calling that number, the business may reach a disconnected number announcement or another individual who has received that number. In this case, the number has been reassigned to a new subscriber, hence the situation is often referred to as the “reassigned number problem.” Namely, the business dialing the number intending to reach one individual (e.g., Mr. Smith) may reach another individual (e.g., Mr. Doe). Specifically, the reassigned number problem refers to a call originator calling a telephone number on the impression it is assigned to a specific individual, but where the telephone number has been reassigned to another individual.
Normally, a business encountering a reassigned number problem will be informed by the answering party that the number has been reassigned. This implies that the business will request to speak with, e.g., Mr. Smith, and the answering party will inform the business that intended person is not at the number. The answer party may become aware via prior calls that the number was associated with Mr. Smith and will determine that the call is not misdialed, but that the intended party is no longer at the number. Normally, upon informing the calling party of the situation, the calling party will cease any further call attempts to the intended individual at that number.
If, however, the call is not answered, or an answering machine or voice mail is encountered, the calling party may not be aware of the reassigned number status. The calling party may attempt the call again, and may then reach the current subscriber. However, if the calling party used an autodialer, and the dialed number was a wireless number, it is possible the calling party may have violated federal regulations and statutes that prohibit using an autodialer to call a wireless number without the called party's consent. Federal regulations, such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) provide the calling party with “one free call”. That is, no liability attaches to making the first call to the party with the reassigned number. However, it is presumed that the caller is informed that the number has been reassigned, and will cease further calls to that number intending to reach the prior subscriber of that number. In many cases, the first call is not answered and hence the calling party is unaware of the status. However unfair such a presumption it may be, the calling party may incur significant monetary penalties for the second and subsequent calls. Thus, it is beneficial for the calling party to know as soon as possible if the call they are originating is inadvertently reaching a different subscriber, one who has received the reassigned number. It is with this and other aspects in mind that the concepts and technologies herein are disclosed.